In a news conference prior to a scheduled third ballot for the speaker of the House, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan called on American history — and salvation history — to make his points.
Before turning to what he called his Jordan told a story about visiting the Wright Brothers’ home in Dayton, Ohio, with friends, and being impressed with the relatively brief period of time it took from that first, short flight in 1903 to Neil Armstrong’s historic first steps on the moon in 1969.
“In 66 years, one lifetime, we went from two guys flying 100 feet, to putting a man on the moon,” he said. “It is a great country. A great country. The greatest country in my judgment, made up of great people.”
“And right now, those people, I think, are starting to doubt and wonder about their government and about where our nation is headed.”
The Ohio Republican posted most of his remarks to X. (A fuller version of the news conference appears below.)
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) October 20, 2023
“In short, we need to get to work for the American people,” Jordan said. “We need to do what we said we were going to do. We need to do what we told them we were going to do when they elected us and put us in office.
“And frankly, we can’t do that if the House isn’t open. And we can’t open the House until we get a speaker.”
Jordan then moved on to quote what he called his “favorite Scripture verse”: 2 Tim 4:7, which, according to Jordan, says, “Fight the good fight, finish the course, keep the faith.”
(Jordan misquoted the verse a bit, turning into a command what Paul wrote in approximately 65 A.D. as a description of his own life’s work — but as the verse comes in the context of Paul’s advice to his younger protege, it didn’t do much of disservice to what Paul was saying. Except, of course, that Paul was referring to preaching the gospel, not some other work and certainly not governance.)
“I tell folks I love that verse because of the action in it,” Jordan said. “Americans aren’t timid folks; they are people of action. And the words of that verse — fight, finish, keep — I think fit the American spirit.
“Americans expect their government to fight for them, they expect us to finish our work, and they expect us to keep faith with the principles and values that made us the greatest nation ever, made us the nation that can go from the Wright Brothers to Neil Armstrong,” he added.
“That’s what we have to keep in mind. And that’s the kind of attitude I think we got to have. The quickest way to get all this working is to get a speaker elected,” he argued. “That’s what I hope we can do today.
You can watch the entirety of Jordan’s remarks, including his answers to a few questions from the media, below, courtesy of The Washington Post.
The House convened just after 10:00 a.m. on Friday to try to elect a new speaker. It remained unclear whether Jordan had enough votes to win, but a number of Republican House members expressed reservations about his chances, according to the Post.
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